Avatar, Hollywood's epic science-fiction film has caught the attention of managers of tomorrow at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
The film, a benchmark in technological excellence in cinema and a major box-office hit, has been included in the curriculum of IIM-A's post graduate programme.
Around 165 students of second year in IIMA's flagship Post Graduate Programme (PGP) discussed the case of James Cameron's Avatar during sessions of "Contemporary Film Industry -a business perspective" (CFI), one of the elective courses at the premier B-school.
Speaking to DNA, Kandaswamy Bharathan, visiting faculty at IIM-A, backed Avatar as their film of choice for the elective as it is a perfect blend of technology and creativity.
"It's always a dilemma whether technology or story be given preference over the other. The idea behind taking Avatar is to explain to students how to blend these essentials," said Bharathan who has designed the elective.
Interestingly, CFI classes are traditionally organised in December during the last term of the course but as the course is gaining popularity among the students, IIMA has conducted these classes twice this year.
The ongoing session started in June while the next session will be in December as is normally the case. The CFI course was introduced in 2008 with an aim to explore business of cinema, entrepreneurial opportunities in film industry and understand its business practice from behind the camera.
The course which saw participation from around 50-odd PGP students in its inception year, the batch-size has grown to 165 in the on-going session. "We expect it to go upto 200 when we start the new session in December," said Bharathan.
So, why the course is gaining popularity among the management students? Ask Ravi Thanvi one of the participating students and he is prompt to respond, "It is content of the course. When you study management you study marketing, strategy etc.
The course teaches you management principles and its application in film industry, which we all love," said Thanvi.
